Pence’s Doctor Resigns as White House Medical Shake-Up Continues

[ad_1]

White House officials and others familiar with the situation said the circumstances surrounding Dr. Jackson’s fall from grace and Dr. Pena’s departure dated back many years, to longstanding divisions in the medical unit — which is part of the military — where there are two factions that do not get along.

Dr. Pena — known to patients simply as “Dr. Jen” — submitted her memos about Dr. Jackson last fall to Nick Ayers, Mr. Pence’s chief of staff, who shared them with John F. Kelly, Mr. Trump’s chief of staff, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private conversations. Both Mr. Ayers and Mr. Kelly directed Dr. Pena to go through her military chain of command to address the issue, the person said.

CNN, which obtained the memos, reported that Dr. Pena had accused Dr. Jackson of having intervened in a medical matter involving Karen Pence, Mr. Pence’s wife, and possibly violating her medical privacy rights. She also said Dr. Jackson had become irate and aggressive during a confrontation over the situation, and that he had fostered an unprofessional atmosphere in the medical unit.

Dr. Jackson, an Iraq war veteran, has insisted that all the allegations against him were untrue, an assertion backed up by Mr. Trump and numerous White House aides from the current and previous administration.

But some members of the medical unit, which houses a few dozen doctors and nurses, described Dr. Jackson as a bully and a sloppy record-keeper, who drank too much — sometimes becoming intoxicated during overseas trips with the president — and loosely dispensed strong drugs to curry favor with the powerful politicians and political aides he admired. Several of them detailed the alleged misconduct in interviews with the Democratic staff of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee.

Despite Mr. Trump’s strong defense of him, Dr. Jackson has not resumed his job as the top physician in the medical unit since he announced his withdrawal from consideration as secretary of veterans affairs. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary, said on Tuesday that another doctor, Sean Conley, who had been acting in Dr. Jackson’s role while he prepared for confirmation hearings, would stay in the post instead.

“Dr. Jackson continues to be an active-duty Navy doctor that’s assigned here at the White House,” Ms. Sanders said, “where there are a number of doctors that are part of the White House Medical Unit.”

Continue reading the main story

[ad_2]

Source link

Someone at the White House called Cohen’s phone before he was raided by FBI – ThinkProgress

[ad_1]

UPDATE: 5:36 p.m. Eastern Time: NBC News issued a correction to its original report on Thursday evening, specifying that authorities had not “wiretapped” Cohen’s phone but had used a “pen register,” a device which captures all outgoing calls made from a specific phone, but does not record the content within those calls. 

The original NBC report cited two sources with knowledge of the Cohen investigation. Those claims were later disputed in part by three senior U.S. officials. The original report has since been updated to reflect the correction.

---

EARLIER: Federal investigators have been monitoring the phone lines of longtime Trump lawyer Michael Cohen and intercepted at least one phone call between a phone line belonging to Cohen and someone at the White House, NBC News reported on Thursday.

Cohen is currently under federal investigation for a $130,000 payment he made on behalf of Trump to adult film actress Stormy Daniels, weeks ahead of the 2016 presidential election, to keep Daniels quiet about an affair she claims to have had with Trump in 2006.

Sources with “knowledge of the legal proceedings” against Cohen told NBC News that the monitoring device was in place “in the weeks leading up to” a series of FBI raids on Cohen’s home, office, and the hotel room in which he had been staying at the time, on April 9. The sources claimed they did not know how long the phone lines had been under surveillance.

It’s unclear who was on either end of the call between Cohen’s phone and the White House, or what was discussed. Due to the nature of the device used, a pen register — not, as NBC News previously reported, a wiretap — only the recipients of Cohen’s phone calls were recorded, and not the conversations therein. However, it’s unlikely the call was made in recent weeks, as NBC noted the president’s legal team advised him not to communicate with Cohen, immediately following the raids.

ABC News previously reported that Trump and Cohen did speak once, following the FBI raids on April 9.

Sources told ABC News following the April 9 raids that agents seized “recordings” in addition to documents on the Daniels payment and related matters, although it’s not clear yet whether the newly revealed White House phone call was included in those recordings. According to The New York Times, prosecutors were searching specifically for recordings Cohen had made of phone calls between himself and other lawyers. Cohen claims he did not record any conversations with Trump.

A phone call between Trump and Cohen — who has acted as Trump’s personal attorney for several years — is in itself unsurprising, but the potential timing of the phone call and the requirements necessary to obtain a federal wiretap raise suspicions. If the president was indeed on the other end of the line during the recently revealed call, it would suggest that the two men were aware investigators may have been closing in on important information, prior to the raid, and felt the need to speak about it.

Pen registers, because of their inherent nature, are less difficult to obtain than a federal wiretap. In order to obtain a federal wiretap, NBC analyst Chuck Rosenberg notes, affidavits must be “highly detailed and carefully vetted by experienced lawyers.”

“In all cases the wiretap must be approved by a federal judge,” he said. Typically, wiretaps are only employed during investigations of ongoing crimes and not for past crimes, he added.

Cohen has previously carried out a variety of tasks for Trump, including acting as a surrogate for the president both during the election and afterward. In a 2011 CNN interview, he described himself as Trump’s guardian, claiming, “I protect Mr. Trump. If there’s an issue that relates to Mr. Trump, that is of concern to him it’s of course of concern to me and I will use my legal skills to protect Mr. Trump to the best of my ability.”

That loyalty became particularly useful to Trump in the months leading up to the 2016 election: in addition to his $130,000 payment to Daniels, Cohen was also tied to an alleged $150,000 hush payment from American Media Inc. — the National Enquirer’s parent company — to former Playboy model Karen McDougal, who also claims to have had an affair with Trump in 2006. While AMI claims the money was for a series of fitness columns and magazine covers, McDougal claims the money barred her from taking her story public, and that the outlet only purchased the rights to her account to shelve the story before it could be published.

Although Cohen claims he had no part in the negotiation process between McDougal and AMI, he was kept in the loop throughout by McDougal’s then-lawyer, Keith Davidson, who also previously represented Daniels.

Federal prosecutors are currently investigating Cohen’s ties to McDougal.

For his part, Cohen initially claimed that he tapped into his home equity line to make the $130,000 payment to Daniels, and that he did so to spare Trump from suffering a blow to his reputation prior to the election, despite the fact that any allegations of an affair are false. He claimed Trump did not repay him for the favor.

On Wednesday, however, former New York City Mayor and current Trump legal team member Rudy Giuliani stated that Trump had, in fact, repaid Cohen the $130,000 in hush money, and that the payment had been “perfectly legal,” despite being made during the 2016 election cycle.

“That money was not campaign money, sorry,” Giuliani told Fox News host Sean Hannity. “I’m giving you a fact now that you don’t know. It’s not campaign money. No campaign finance violation. [They] funneled it through the law firm, and the president repaid him.”

Giuliani’s comments contradicted Trump’s earlier statements to reporters, in which he claimed he had no knowledge of the $130,000 payment to Daniels and referred reporters to his lawyer, Cohen. The White House has also stated that Trump had “no knowledge of any payments.”

Trump’s own divorce lawyer has suggested that Cohen’s loyalty, while ironclad thus far, may only go so far. In a comment to CNN in mid-April, attorney Jay Goldberg claimed that Cohen would likely flip on the president and work with federal prosecutors to avoid jail time.

“He’s of a type that I have recognized in the past as one not suited to stand up to the rigors of jail life,” Goldberg said.

This article has been updated to reflect a correction by NBC News that clarified federal prosecutors were monitoring Cohen’s calls using a pen register and not a wiretap, as the outlet previously reported.

[ad_2]

Source link

Sanders admits White House’s story about Comey firing has changed, argues it doesn’t matter – ThinkProgress

[ad_1]

During his train wreck of an interview on Hannity on Wednesday night, new Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani explained that the president fired then-FBI director James Comey because Comey refused to publicly announce that Trump “wasn’t a target” of the FBI’s investigation of his campaign.

There’s just one problem. Giuliani’s explanation for Comey’s firing differs from two previous ones that have already been offered by the White House — the official line, which was that Comey mishandled the Hillary Clinton email investigation; and the one Trump offered NBC’s Lester Holt, which was that he fired Comey because he was frustrated with the Russia investigation.

On Thursday, Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was asked to reconcile team Trump’s shifting rationales for Comey’s firing. She responded with the verbal equivalent of the shrug emoji.

“There were a number of reasons that James Comey was fired. The president has named several of them,” Sanders said. “But the bottom line is, the president doesn’t have to justify his decision. The president has the authority to fire and hire, and I think every single day we’ve seen that he made the right decision in firing James Comey.”

Despite what Sanders would have you believe, the White House’s changing story could cause problems for Trump. Part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation pertains to whether Trump obstructed justice when he fired Comey amid an active FBI investigation into his campaign. The answer hinges on Trump’s motivations.

Trump himself has said contradictory things about why he fired Comey. Though he initially admitted he fired him because of the Russia investigation, Trump recently tried to walk that back in a tweet proclaiming that “the worst FBI Director in history, was not fired because of the phony Russia investigation where, by the way, there was NO COLLUSION (except by the Dems)!”

Slippery James Comey, the worst FBI Director in history, was not fired because of the phony Russia investigation where, by the way, there was NO COLLUSION (except by the Dems)!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 18, 2018

In that tweet, Trump did not cite a reason for Comey’s firing. The implication, however, is that Comey’s poor character justified his termination. Giuliani furthered that effort during his interview with Hannity, at one point calling Comey “a very perverted man.”

[ad_2]

Source link

Sarah Sanders waves the white flag on Stormy Daniels – ThinkProgress

[ad_1]

On April 5, President Trump specifically said he had no knowledge of the $130,000 payment Michael Cohen made to Stormy Daniels, and referred all questions back to Cohen. Last night, Rudy Giuliani admitted that Trump had reimbursed Cohen for the $130,000 in a series of payments that completed in 2017.

During Thursday’s White House press briefing, Sarah Sanders was presented with a  very difficult task are explaining how these two things are consistent.

She barely tried.

Sanders initially said that “this was information the president didn’t know at the time but eventually learned.”

But how could Trump not know about the $130,000 payment by Cohen if he had already reimbursed Cohen?

That’s precisely what Sanders was asked next by ABC’s Jonathan Karl. “How could he not have known, he was paying him back?”

“I’m not going to get into those details,” Sanders replied.

This isn’t an answer but an acknowledgement that there is no answer.

CNN’s Jim Acosta gave it another shot. “How can you only be aware of something 10 days to two weeks ago but at the same time be in the process of paying monthly retainers that apparently covered this reimbursement?”

“I can’t get into the details of the ongoing litigation. I would refer you to the President’s outside counsel,” Sanders replied.

Another issue, raised by Acosta and others, was Sanders own statement on March 7, in which she told reporters that she had spoken to the president and he had no knowledge of the payments made to Daniels.

Acosta asked if she was “lying” or if she was “in the dark.”

Sanders said she gave “the best information I had.”

She later acknowledged that the first time she learned that Trump had reimbursed Cohen for the Stormy Daniels payment was when she watched the Rudy Giuliani interview on Hannity last night.

[ad_2]

Source link

Kelly Finds Himself in a Familiar Place in the Trump White House: Eyeing the Exits

[ad_1]

While several current and former officials said they had not heard the chief of staff call his boss “an idiot,” as NBC News reported on Monday, many said that Mr. Kelly had given the impression over many months that he did not hold the president in high regard. He speaks as if he sees himself as the lone bulwark against potentially dangerous decisions by the commander in chief, they say. And whether he used the word or not, they added, the story itself could serve to accelerate his departure.

Yet Mr. Trump, always averse to confrontation, has continued to keep Mr. Kelly in his role, while increasingly steering around him on matters large and small. One person close to the White House said that it will be up to Mr. Kelly to end his tenure, since Mr. Trump knows how damaging it would be to dismiss a four-star Marine general.

The result is that Mr. Kelly now finds himself in the position where several others who have worked for Mr. Trump have landed: aware that their jobs have become close to untenable, looking for ways to cauterize the wounds to their reputations and knowing that it is only a matter of when — not if — they will have to leave.

In an interview on Wednesday, Mr. Kelly’s deputy, Zachary D. Fuentes, defended his boss and insisted he was the victim of unfounded attacks.

“He’s never called the president an idiot, he’s never called the president unhinged, and the idea that a Marine would ever tolerate somebody disrespecting the commander in chief like that is unthinkable,” said Mr. Fuentes, who has taken the unusual step of talking to reporters on the record this week to push back against the reports.

“He’s been smeared,” Mr. Fuentes said of Mr. Kelly, adding, “I don’t understand why people want to see him go.”

As for the relationship between Mr. Kelly and Mr. Trump, he said: “They’re on great footing. Their relationship is as strong as ever.”

Continue reading the main story

But the White House communications staff, which normally rushes to deny or sidestep rumors that Mr. Trump is angry with or on the brink of firing an underling, has been quiet. It allowed a statement that Mr. Kelly issued on Monday, and the protestations of his closest aide, to serve as the only substantial on-record comment in response to the NBC story.

“I spend more time with the president than anyone else, and we have an incredibly candid and strong relationship,” Mr. Kelly said in the statement, circulated to the White House press pool. “He always knows where I stand, and he and I both know this story is total BS.”

The next day, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the press secretary, tried to put the best face on the relationship, telling reporters that both Mr. Trump and Mr. Kelly were “very happy with his position that he currently holds.”

But Chris Whipple, the author of “The Gatekeepers,” a history of White House chiefs of staff, has a different view of the relationship. “It’s like a really bad marriage, but maybe for now both people have decided they’re just going to try to muddle through,” he said. “Trump is just tired of having a chief of staff, and has this delusion that he would somehow be more effective unchained.”

Mr. Whipple described Mr. Kelly as suffering from what he called the “Don Regan syndrome,” a reference to Ronald Reagan’s ill-fated chief of staff. Like Mr. Kelly, Mr. Regan would often say things that revealed a disdain for his boss, once famously comparing his job to that of a shovel brigade whose task was to walk behind a herd of elephants cleaning up their mess.

“He’s arrogant, he’s been imperious and he’s politically out of his depth,” Mr. Whipple said of Mr. Kelly. “That’s all coming back to bite him now.”

Some officials said the NBC story appeared to be part of a calculated effort by Mr. Kelly’s detractors to damage him in Mr. Trump’s eyes, perhaps to prod the president to take the step he has so far resisted of firing his chief of staff.

Mr. Kelly’s hold on the White House staff has certainly weakened, tarnishing his reputation and overshadowing his efforts to bring order and discipline to the West Wing.

The scandal surrounding the departure in February of Rob Porter, the staff secretary who resigned under pressure amid allegations of spousal abuse, left a lingering bitter taste among aides, some of whom felt that Mr. Kelly had botched his response and been dishonest about his own role in the episode. Among those who came away angry with Mr. Kelly were Jared Kushner — whose high-level security access he revoked as part of tightened security clearance procedures in the scandal’s aftermath — and Ivanka Trump.

Continue reading the main story

More recently, he has left some aides with unclear job descriptions in place while declining to fill key roles. He has targeted some people who were close to Mr. Trump during the campaign as potential problems, and tried to limit their influence. That has included people within the West Wing as well as those on Mr. Trump’s ever-present evening phone call list, such as Corey Lewandowski, the first 2016 campaign manager who was fired before the convention.

Mr. Lewandowski and David Bossie, the deputy campaign manager, both traveled with Mr. Trump to Michigan on Saturday. And the looming midterm elections — for which Mr. Kelly has no instinctive feel — provide Mr. Trump with added incentive to listen to other voices.

Mr. Kelly’s insistence on an identifiable chain of command in the White House — one of the first things he tried to establish when taking the job last summer — has given way to the creation of new fiefs.

Larry Kudlow, Mr. Trump’s new director of the National Economic Council, has a direct line to the president, as does John R. Bolton, his newly installed national security adviser, who was not Mr. Kelly’s preferred candidate for the role. Mr. Bolton has been seeking to build his own empire, hiring staff members who may have been considered problematic before.

Mr. Kelly, for his part, is sanguine about how little control he has over how the president chooses to spend his time. At a breakfast event last week for Senator Tom Cotton, Republican of Arkansas, Mr. Kelly marveled that Mr. Trump had spent a long time the day before on the phone with Bill Belichick, the New England Patriots coach, talking about the status of Tom Brady, the star quarterback, according to two people familiar with his remarks, one of whom was present.

“It was, to begin with, the most dysfunctional White House in modern history, and now it’s worse,” Mr. Whipple said. “Without an empowered White House chief of staff, you can’t execute policy.”

Continue reading the main story

[ad_2]

Source link

White House Considers Barring Chinese Telecom Sales as Tensions Mount

[ad_1]

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is considering executive action to further restrict the sale of Chinese telecommunications equipment in the United States, people briefed on the discussions said, in a move that could ratchet up tensions between China and the United States as the countries vie for technological dominance.

The executive order, which could be released within days, is expected to raise the barrier for government agencies to buy products from foreign telecom equipment providers like Huawei and ZTE, two of China’s most prominent technology firms. Private government contractors may also be restricted from buying foreign telecom products, which the United States believes may be vulnerable to Chinese espionage or disruption.

The order would follow a series of intensifying actions by the Trump administration to block Chinese technology that is seen as a national security threat. In March, the Federal Communications Commission took action to block broadband companies that receive federal subsidies from buying equipment from suppliers that are deemed a risk to national security. In April, the Commerce Department barred ZTE from purchases of American technology for seven years, saying that the company failed to punish employees who violated United States sanctions.

The Trump administration increasingly views national security and emerging technology as intertwined and has used its authority to protect national security as a way to block China from gaining an economic edge, particularly as it relates to that nation’s ambitious industrial policy, known as Made in China 2025. Both nations are racing to claim dominance in cutting-edge technology like autonomous vehicles and the next generation of wireless services, known as 5G.

On Wednesday, a spokesman for the Department of Defense said the Pentagon was stopping the sale of phones made by Huawei and ZTE in stores on American military bases around the world because of security concerns.

While the Pentagon cannot stop service members from buying the phones elsewhere, the spokesman, Maj. Dave Eastburn, said in an email that the Defense Department was directing American military personnel to be “mindful of the security risks posed by the use of Huawei devices, regardless of where they are purchased.”

“Huawei and ZTE devices may pose an unacceptable risk to the department’s personnel, information and mission,“ Major Eastburn said. He cited Senate testimony in February by the director of national intelligence and the heads of the F.B.I., the C.I.A. and other agencies that Americans should not use Huawei products because of potential security risks.

The crackdown on the telecom companies comes as the United States and China trade accusations of unfair policies and threats of tariffs. A delegation of top Trump administration officials, including Steven Mnuchin, the Treasury secretary, arrived in China this week for talks aimed at defusing the tensions.

The Trump administration has been considering other curbs on China, including investment restrictions and curtailing visas for Chinese nationals who work on sensitive research projects. The White House is also weighing new rules that would add to the goods and services traded with China that are subject to so-called deemed export rules. If such rules go into effect, American companies and universities will be required to obtain special licenses for Chinese researchers who have contact with a broader range of technology — making it harder for Chinese citizens to join in scientific research and product development programs.

People familiar with the discussions cautioned that an executive order that expanded on these actions was still being worked on, and that legal hurdles remained.

Lindsay E. Walters, the White House deputy press secretary, said the White House had no comment on individual actions. “Protecting critical infrastructure, including the supply chains associated with such infrastructure, is a critical part of protecting America’s national security and public safety,” she added.

American companies have expressed similar national security concerns about foreign tech companies, but say they’re waiting for details of the order.

”Addressing global supply chain security concerns has long been a priority for the tech industry,” said Pamela Walker, vice president at the Information Technology Industry Council, a lobbying group. “Moving forward, we urge policymakers to share information with suppliers and contractors so we can increase the level of security and assurance within the supply chain.”

[ad_2]

Source link

White supremacist found guilty in Charlottesville beating – ThinkProgress

[ad_1]

Nearly nine months after racist violence and domestic terror rocked Charlottesville, Virginia, one of the white supremacists involved in the bloodshed has finally received a verdict in his trial.

On Tuesday evening, Jacob Scott Goodwin was found guilty of malicious wounding, with a jury recommending ten years in prison for the 23-year-old. A judge will sentence Goodwin in late August, just over a year after one of Goodwin’s fellow white supremacists killed Heather Heyer and injured over a dozen more with his car after the white supremacist rally.

Goodwin hasn’t gained as much notoriety as some of his fellow white supremacists, like Richard Spencer or Matthew Heimbach, but he shot to infamy after he was captured on tape battering a young black man in a Charlottesville parking garage. Goodwin’s victim, 20-year-old DeAndre Harris, was rounded up by a gang of white supremacists, who then broke Harris’s arm and left him with a spinal injury. Goodwin claimed the beating was in self-defense.

Goodwin, who was wearing a military helmet and plastic shield, was one of at least five men who beat Harris. The white supremacist was also wearing Nazi paraphernalia, as well as a pin with the logo for the Traditionalist Workers Party, a group that recently imploded following news of Heimbach’s affair with his mother-in-law. Goodwin’s parents have stood by their son, with Goodwin’s father recently saying that his son “did nothing wrong.”

Goodwin wasn’t the only white supremacist or far-right supporter arrested for bludgeoning Harris. Tyler Davis, Daniel Borden, and Alex Ramos are all facing trial for the assault as well.

[ad_2]

Source link

White House confirms involvement in ‘raid’ of Trump’s former doctor’s office – ThinkProgress

[ad_1]

During a news briefing on Tuesday, Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders confirmed that the White House was involved in retrieving President Trump’s medical records from his former doctor, Dr. Harold Bornstein, but disputed Bornstein’s claim that what a top White House aide and Trump Organization official did to his office in February 2017 was tantamount to a “raid.”

“Why did Keith Schiller, who was a White House employee at the time, go and take medical records from the president’s personal doctor last year?” NBC’s Hallie Jackson asked. Schiller is Trump’s longtime bodyguard and served as director of Oval Office operations from Trump’s inauguration until September of last year.

“Ah, as is standard operating procedure for a new president, the White House medical unit took possession of the president’s medical records,” Sanders replied.

“It was characterized as a ‘raid’ — is that your understanding of what happened?” Jackson followed up. “The doctor seemed to be pretty upset about it.”

“Ah no, that is not my understanding,” Sanders replied, without elaborating.

A short time later, another reporter followed up, noting that “there are some today that are saying what happened with the president’s former personal doctor is a burglary, the way Keith Schiller busted in–”

Sanders cut him off.

“I don’t know if ‘some’ — I think there is one, but not ‘some,'” Sanders said, alluding to Bornstein’s recollection of in the incident. “Once again, it would be standard procedure for the president — a newly elected president’s medical records to be in possession by the White House medical unit, and that was what was taking place, is those records were being transferred over to the White House medical unit, as requested.”

Sanders’ portrayal of the February 2017 incident is at odds with Bornstein, who told NBC that the “raid” left him feeling “raped, frightened, and sad” and “created a lot of chaos.”

Bornstein said that the incident happened two days after he told the New York Times that Trump takes Propecia, a drug that is often prescribed to stimulate hair grown in men.

“I couldn’t believe anybody was making a big deal out of a drug to grow his hair that seemed to be so important,” Bernstein said. “And it certainly was not a breach of medical trust to tell somebody they take Propecia to grow their hair. What’s the matter with that?”

Trump's doctor, Dr. Harold Bornstein, tells NBC that Trump's bodyguard & lawyer spent 30 minutes raiding his office.

"I couldn't believe anybody was making a big deal about a drug that's to grow his hair, which seemed to be so important… what's the matter with that?" pic.twitter.com/R2XvAKim7h

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) May 1, 2018

Bornstein said that Schiller, Trump Organization Chief Legal Officer Alan Garten, and another “large man” showed up unexpectedly at his office and spent about 30 minutes rummaging through it. He says they took the original and only copy of Trump’s medical charts.

During a subsequent conversation with CBS, Bornstein compared what happened in his office to the Watergate break-in.

.@KaciSokoloff just spoke w Dr. Harold Bornstein, who refused an interview but said that NBC's piece was "a pretty good story." Bornstein also said that he spoke to the NBC reporter “in the bathroom” of his office. He signed off with: "Sweetheart, this is watergate, goodbye!"

— Jacqueline Alemany (@JaxAlemany) May 1, 2018

During the presidential campaign, Bornstein — who was Trump’s personal doctor for more than three decades — released a letter proclaiming Trump had “no significant medical problems in the past 39 years” and would be “the healthiest individual elected to the presidency.”

During a press conference earlier this year, White House doctor Ronny Jackson provided a similarly glowing review of Trump’s health. “Some people have just great genes. I told the president that if he had a healthier diet over the past 20 years he might live to be 200 year old,” Jackson said. He also confirmed that Trump takes Propecia.

Jackson was recently nominated by Trump to be director of the Department of Veterans Affairs, but his nomination quickly fell through amid allegations that he doled out prescription drugs like candy and drank excessively on the job. Trump has repeatedly said he believes all of the allegations against Jackson are false.

During the briefing on Tuesday, Sanders confirmed that Jackson no longer serves as Trump’s personal physician.

[ad_2]

Source link